The Seaweed Site: information on marine and other algae🔒 SSL Verified

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• ↓ Do you know any seaweeds?
• ↓ Edible Seaweed?
• ↓ Uses of Seaweed
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"This site is a free source of general information on all aspects of seaweeds. Seaweeds are marine algae: saltwater-dwelling, simple organisms that fall into the somewhat outmoded, but still generally useful category of "plants". Most of them are the green (more than 2000 species), brown (about 2000 species) or red (over 7500 species), a total of about 11,500 kinds, samples of which are each illustrated on this page. Most are attached by holdfasts, which generally just have an anchorage function, although a particularly efficient one."

"Most people know two general categories of seaweeds: wracks (species of the brown algal order Fucales such as Fucus) and kelps (species of the brown algal order Laminariales such as Laminaria), and many of you have heard of Carrageen or Irish Moss (usually the red alga, Chondrus crispus) and Dulse or Dillisk (also a red alga, Palmaria palmata). Seaweeds also make up the Sargasso Sea, a large ocean gyre in the western Atlantic where drift plants of several species of the genus Sargassum accumulate, and which has become  much more extensive in recent years resulting in serious problem casts on the beaches of many coasts of North America and the Caribbean. Seaweeds are particularly important ecologically: they dominate the rocky intertidal in most oceans, and in temperate and polar regions  they cover rock surfaces in the shallow subtidal. Although only penetrating to depths of 8-40 m in most oceans, seaweeds can be found to depths of 250 m in particularly clear waters (some parts of the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Brazil). The Giant Kelp (a species of Macrocystis) is one of the largest plants in the world, and in western North America  it  forms an ecologically critical association with the Sea Otter."

"Seaweeds are found throughout the world's oceans and seas and none is known to be poisonous. Many are nice to eat and some are considered to be delicacies in some Asian countries and more recently in Europe and North America. Some recent, healthy recipes can be found here. Seaweeds are used in many maritime regions for industrial applications, and as a fertiliser. The major direct use of these plants as food is in Japan, China, and Korea, and in the Indian Ocean where seaweed cultivation has become a major coastal industry. The main food species grown by aquaculture in these countries are Nori or Zicai (Porphyra or Pyropia, red algae, Porphyra umbilicalis on right), Kombu, Kunbu or Haidai (Laminaria or Saccharina: brown algae) and Wakame ( Undaria, also a brown alga). In Japan alone, the total annual production value of nori amounts to 9 billion sheets and a retail value of over US$1 billion, one of the most valuable crops produced by aquaculture in the world. In most western countries, seaweed consumption is relatively restricted and there has not been any great pressure to develop mass cultivation techniques. On this site, seaweed aquaculture, particularly of nori, a Japanese red seaweed used as a sushi wrap , is described in detail."

Key Topics & Focus Areas for seaweed.ie:

Do you know any seaweeds?

Edible Seaweed?

Uses of Seaweed